Adapted from a classic novella of the master storyteller of horror, Stephen King, you can expect The Mist to be more than a typical monster movie. In fact, the movie is less about the monsters but rather, more about the humanity of the people in it. Or lack thereof.

The Plot

After a storm rages through the night in the town of Maine (hometown of King and also the usual location for his stories), commercial artist David Drayton (Thomas Jane) wakes up to a wreck of a house as well as his movie poster works. Before leaving for town to do some home-repair shopping and stocking-up, he and his wife spots a mysterious shroud of mist drifting in from the mountains across the lake. Dismissing it as just a bout of fog, he then heads off to the town supermarket with his 5 year-old boy Billy (Nathan Gamble) and enemy-turned-acquaintance neighbour, Brent Norton (Andre Braugher).

At the store, the power’s cut, as with everywhere else. However, everything’s fine till the slow realisation that the mist is moving in just a little too quickly and thickly. Soon, mayhem breaks out as a bloody-nosed old man runs shouting down the street, just ahead of the mist into the super mart. He screams about “something in the mist” that had gotten hold of another local and killed him. Meanwhile, people scrambling about the car park outside give out hideous short-lived screams as the mist engulf them. Hurriedly shutting the store doors, the dazed shoppers soon find themselves enclosed with no knowledge of the on goings outside. With near-zero visibility out of the ceiling-to-floor glass windows and no forms of communication with the outside, the people only half believe the old man’s words. A mother decides to go home to her children, against the advice of the majority of the shoppers and leaves the supermarket alone when no one is willing to follow her out into the killer vapour.

While in the loading dock looking for a blanket for his badly-shaken son, David realises that there is indeed something out there. First to fall victim is young bag-boy Norm, who stubbornly tried to play hero to save the store’s generator. A giant alien then snakes under the raised door to claim him and has David engaged in a failed bloody attempt at rescuing Norm.

Confusion and fear strikes the heart of the rest when they learned what happened. The over-zealously religious Mrs Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden) is convinced that the mist is God’s punishment for mankind, Doom’s Day, and who, without much difficulty, will quickly become the viewers’ common enemy. Another extreme group of people however, is in disbelief about the creatures and venture out of the super mart for help. Unsurprisingly, they never made it alive more than 8 metres out of the door.

It seems as though the world is cast back to prehistoric times as the monsters come about in the forms of gigantic flying insects, spiders and praying mantis, pterodactyl-like creatures and other never before seen fiends. But are these really the ones to look out for?

Watch as the survivors try to defend themselves against the predators in a store with walls made entirely on glass and more importantly, as David and a handful of his supporters try to make a break out of the store, away from Mrs Carmody and her increasing population of sacrifice-crazed and blood thirsty followers who’ve decided on wanting little Billy as the next sacrifice. Balancing out the thrilling suspense with King’s witty humour are the unlikely heroes, Irene and Dan, a couple of old but tough people who would usually be thought to be weak and useless.

As the story intensifies, you’ll have to decide what is worst, the lack of civilisation and humanity in our species when fearfully faced with the unknown and the lack of technology or man-eating monsters?

Darker Ending

Directed and written for the big screen by Frank Darabont, who’s previously directed and produced other adaptations of King’s works like The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, the ending differs from King’s original. With a darker twist to wrap things up, it makes you want to hurl loud objections at David onscreen in the theatre before finally resorting to lines of “I told you so!” as he makes his one stupidly wrong decision which will end in a lifetime of regret for him. Psychological torture cannot get any worst than this and it is sure to generate many mixed reviews about the preferred choice of an ending.

Interestingly enough, Darabont refused to film the adaptation digitally, using the resulting grainy effect to give it a feel of a documentary. He also used a minimal amount of music to go along with his modified ending, playing on its silence to create a “heavier feel” as well as to keep it documentary-like.

On the whole, The Mist has done a great job at keeping King’s thought-provoking style while achieving horror with its B list cast, not something all adaptations can do.

UrbanWire gives The Mist 4 out of 5 stars

Movie Details:

Opens: Jan 24

Running time: 126 mins

Language: English with Chinese subtitles

Cast: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden

Director: Frank Darabont